This invention relates to athletic equipment for training exercise in hitting objects, such as baseballs, tennis balls and other balls, or objects such as hockey pucks. In particular, it is a swivel-arm holder which positions a facsimile of a ball or other object where desired for hitting practice repeatedly and which may calculate impact force of hitting, direction of travel and distance of travel of an actual ball.
A wide variety of hitting-practice mechanisms are known. The most commonly-used hitting-practice device is the standard batting "T", which consists of one upright pole on which a ball is placed and then hit. However, the device does not retain the ball which must be chased after each hit.
One of the more recent patented batting-practice mechanisms is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,371, issued May 16, 1989, by Lay. The Lay device is a spring-based tee that positions a baseball or softball at a desired height relative to a trainee's waist. A coil spring at a base of the tee repositions a ball on a top of the tee conveniently and quickly after the ball has been struck. This allows a trainee to hit the ball repeatedly to gain hitting exercise from hitting a still ball. But it does not measure impact strength or flight direction as taught by this invention.
A swivel-arm device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,633,320, issued Mar. 31, 1953, by Salmi. It teaches a ball on a swivel arm which rotates a quarter of a turn but does not provide variable ball positioning, hitting-trajectory indication, impact-force analysis and other features taught by this invention. Other devices different from this invention but with a ball attachable to a pivot arm are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,070, issued Oct. 29, 1968, by Gonzales, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,030 issued Sep. 6, 1966, by Mueller; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,862,044, issued Jun. 7, 1932, by White.
As none of the above devices is adequate, even today professional ball players still practice ball-hitting by standing in front of a wall and hitting the ball against it. Furthermore, there still has been no hitting-practice device that duplicates and analyzes hitting conditions thoroughly enough for either beginner or professional levels of training.